The representation of disabled people in Hollywood and on the Broadway stage has a marred history. In recent years, the disabled community has seen a new tide in accessibility and representation.
More disabled people are getting involved themselves. It is becoming more common to see disabled people on stage and on screen. This shift is after decades of able-bodied people playing these roles instead of disabled people.
Now disabled people are portraying honest, authentic disabled characters. Recently several movies and Broadway shows have included disabled people.
The Broadway musical Suffs and the Wicked movie, based on its Broadway production, made headlines recently. Both employed actors who are ambulatory wheelchair users (able to stand or walk at times) to play the disabled characters in each show.
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In his My Blind Spot article, ‘Should Characters with Disabilities Only Be Played by Actors with Disabilities?’, Albert J. Rizzi discusses this.
After becoming disabled himself, Albert understood how disabled people “…have been denied the opportunities of acting…” (Rizzi, 2022). Due to outdated and ableist social constructs, disabled people get overlooked for authentic disabled roles.
Hollywood’s Progress: CODA and A Quiet Place
More complex characters tend to go to able-bodied actors. Disabled people get assigned more token characters. This further perpetuates harmful stereotypes about disability.
Recently, more disabled people played authentic disabled roles, including in CODA. CODA is short for ‘Child of Deaf Adults’.
The show tackles the relationship between Deaf parents, their hearing children, and the world. This show hired Deaf actors, including Troy Kotsur who is himself Deaf.
Co-star Marlee Matlin is also disabled and received critical acclaim in the 1986 movie “Children of a Lesser God”. A Quiet Place was also recently praised for hiring Deaf actors to play Deaf characters.
The movie shows the journey of a Deaf family as they navigate life on Earth with dangerous aliens. The young actress who played the daughter is Deaf herself. The remaining hearing cast all learned ASL for the movie. It is also a major part of the plot as the family uses it to communicate.
Wicked recently debuted its long awaited cinematic movie release. Based on the successful Broadway musical, Wicked had a long-time issue for the disabled community.
As Phoebe Jenkins of Digital Spy said in ‘Wicked Rights a Long-Standing Wrong of the Musical’, “In the 21 years that Wicked has been on stage across the globe, there had yet to be a disabled character cast to play the one disabled character…” (Jenkins, 2024).
Wicked’s Landmark Change in Representation
Elphaba’s sister Nessarose is a wheelchair user, but in every version of the show an able-bodied person played the role. This changed with the 2024 movie release, with actress Marissa Bode, an ambulatory wheelchair user, much like Nessarose.
The movie release of Wicked fixed more than casting a disabled actress to fix the production’s history with the discussion of disability. The way the ensemble talks about her seemed to reflect new perspectives sought by not only the community at large but the makers of the film as well.
The old trope that disability means broken or needing fixing was itself fixed. Nessarose’s own infantilization and tokenization was also a subject, something the disabled community is very used to (Jenkins, 2024).
The hit musical Suffs closed on Broadway January 5th, marking a near year of trailblazing. The show, based on the historic fight for women to get the right to vote in early 1900s America, had an all-woman cast.
A Historic First: Jenna Bainbridge as Nessarose
I was even able to see it in October, it was remarkable. I was happy to see a wheelchair user in the cast, even more so to find out the actress is actually disabled. Jenna Bainbridge became disabled at 18 months old from a spinal injury.
It left her with partial paralysis from the waist down. She auditioned for the musical during a mid-pandemic funk. The loom of unemployment encouraged Jenna to apply for “pipe dreams” (Lane, 2024).
In an interview with Eden Lane of Colorado Public Radio, Bainbridge said auditioning for Suffs led to her working alongside Broadway icons. She was also able to delve even further into conversations about disability and accessibility in Broadway.
“Our director, Leigh Silverman… was always so eager to hear my thoughts on how to incorporate my disability into the show and into the choreography and the staging…” (Lane, 2024).
Bainbridge’s several roles in the show weren’t written with specific disabled representation in mind, but Jenna’s presence had a part in creating a more accessible production.
Most recently, Jenna Bainbridge of Suffs will make history as the first disabled actress to play Nessarose in the Broadway production of Wicked.
Wicked Movie
This announcement first came in mid February 2025, after the closing of Suffs and the roaring success of the Wicked movie. This announcement is truly history making as there has never been up to now a disabled actress in the role.
John Moore from The Denver Gazette wrote in his article “Let’s role! Denver’s Jenna Bainbridge will make ‘Wicked’ Broadway History” how Bainbridge herself is breaking barriers of disabled accessibility and representation in Broadway.
This follows the success of Marriss Bode as the first disabled version of the Nessarose at all in the 2024 Wicked movie. Bainbridge’s Nessarose will begin in March 2025. The Broadway and disabled communities are both buzzing with excitement.
John Moore put it well in his own words, “The world’s near-universal reaction: It’s about time. It’s huge. And: It’s a start…” (Moore, 2025).
The Future of Disabled Representation in Entertainment
The message of these changes is clear, differences do not mark unworthiness. Every person deserves treatment with humanity.
I look forward to seeing more and more disabled representation in the media. It is the dawn of a new day in representation. May it continue to flourish and diversify as we do as well.
